N815MA Citation 550 lands gear up slides off runway . (KILM)

Aviation Charter, Fractional, and Private
1


photo from JetPhotos

FlightAware Flight Tracker for Cessna Citation 550 N815MA

Local press report two crew and family of five where uninjured.
Aircraft was landing to clear customs just before 0300 local time when the gear failed to lower. Aircraft made a gear up landing, sliding off the runway into the grass.

** Report created 1/5/2009 Record 13 **

IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 815MA Make/Model: C550 Description: 550, S550, 552 Citation 2/S2/Bravo (T-47
Date: 01/04/2009 Time: 0715

Event Type: Incident Highest Injury: None Mid Air: N Missing: N
Damage: Unknown

LOCATION
City: WILMINGTON State: NC Country: US

DESCRIPTION
AIRCRAFT LANDED GEAR UP AND SLID OFF THE RUNWAY INTO THE GRASS, WILMINGTON,
NC

INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 0
# Crew: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Pass: 7 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:

WEATHER: VMC

OTHER DATA
Activity: Unknown Phase: Landing Operation: OTHER

FAA FSDO: GREENSBORO, NC (SO05) Entry date: 01/05/2009

2

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20090104/ARTICLES/901040271/1177

A small jet with no fuel made an emergency landing at Wilmington International Airport ILM early Sunday, and the seven people onboard escaped without injuries, officials said.

…

The Cessna Citation landed at 2:20 a.m. after four failed attempts to land in thick fog, Wilsey said. The plane, which is a twin-engine jet, ran out of fuel during flight because of strong-winds and the added flight time taken during the repeated passes over the airport, she said.

3

So did the pilots forget to extend the gear because of dealing with the fuel crisis, or did the lack of fuel cause the inability to extend the gear?

4

You should still be able to extend the gear if you run out of gas

5

This is what had me confused. Even manually, you should still be able to extend the gear when you run out of fuel. ACA’s Gimli Glider incident is a good example of that. So it really has me wondering what the pilots were thinking when they made their approach, or if they were too fast on their approach that they might overshoot the runway either way…

BL.

6

Does “best glide” apply to jets? I would think wheels up would extend the glide???

7

Citations have an emergency gear extension system that uses a Nitrogen bottle to “blow down” the gear. No electrical, hydraulic or engine power is required.

We don’t know when the engine power was lost along the last approach. If the aircraft was on the GS without power the pilots may have decided that dropping the gear would give them too much drag and they may land short. Landing gear up on the runway is preferable to landing short off the airport.

You don’t drop the gear on a no-power landing until you have a visual on the runway and know you have enough altitude to make the runway with the added drag of the gear.

This looks like the METARs around the landing time:

KILM 040653Z AUTO 02003KT 1/2SM FG BKN001 OVC005 11/10 A3014 RMK AO2 SLP204 T01060100=

KILM 040753Z AUTO 33003KT 3/4SM BR OVC001 10/09 A3015 RMK AO2 SLP208 T01000094=

8

Best glide for a C550 is 120KIAS at 9500lbs with flaps up, gear up. Increase speed 3 KIAS for each 500lbs increase in weight.

9

With those METAR reports, that airport would BARELY be above minimums for any of the ILS approaches (24, 6, 35), as the lowest approach minimum is 200 and 1/2.

I guess the next question would be when did they realize they were low on fuel, and if it was before they reached KILM, why didn’t they divert. They easily could have made KMYR on the way up from Santo Domingo.

BL.

10

Yeah, lots of questions here…

11

Are you kidding me??? After 2 I’m done. I’ll miss the first and give it another go. But after that, I’m going else where. Of course I wouldn’t have gone that far that low on gas. I would have landed somewhere between here and there…oh wait there isn’t anyplace. I would have planned different, IMHO they tried over utilizing the a/c. 5:54 min!! OUCH

Easy to arm chair QB though.

12

[quote=“leardvr”]

Uhh… there isn’t anywhere? Lessee… From AirNav:

Other nearby airports with instrument procedures:
KSUT - Brunswick County Airport (22 nm SW)
KACZ - Henderson Field Airport (27 nm N)
KNCA - New River Marine Corps Air Station (H) (McCutcheon Field) (35 nm NE)
KOAJ - Albert J Ellis Airport (36 nm NE)
KEYF - Curtis L Brown Jr. Field Airport (39 nm NW)

With that, let’s eliminate some. KACZ and KEYF are too short. KNCA won’t do. KOAJ, has a long enough runway, but all of these airports are too far north. So only option out of this list is KSUT. KSUT has a 4300x100ft runway. That could accommodate the C550. With proximity to KILM, KSUT was also socked in:

KSUT 041340Z AUTO 08003KT 2 1/2SM BR OVC002 12/11 RMK AO2
KSUT 041320Z AUTO 00000KT 2SM BR OVC002 12/11 RMK AO2

Can’t get any older METAR readings from ADDS. So you look further south on your route.

KMYR is 45nm West of KSUT, making it roughly 60nm Southwest of KILM. Easily in the distance of that C550, and between MDJB and KILM. KSAV is also on the way. KCHS is also on the way. Yes, they’d have to be taken off the airway to make it, but it could be done. So saying that there wasn’t any place to divert is entirely not true.

BL.

13

Try uswx.com/us/stn/?code=c&n=50&stn=kjan for older METARS

Replace KJAN with your airport of choice.

14

Thanks, and good find! :slight_smile:

With that, here is the weather for KSUT at the time:

KSUT 040600Z AUTO 00000KT 5SM BR OVC008 11/10 RMK AO2
KSUT 040620Z AUTO 00000KT 5SM BR OVC008 11/10 RMK AO2
KSUT 040640Z AUTO 00000KT 5SM BR OVC008 11/10 RMK AO2
KSUT 040700Z AUTO 00000KT 7SM OVC008 11/10 RMK AO2
KSUT 040720Z AUTO 35003KT 7SM OVC008 11/10 RMK AO2
KSUT 040740Z AUTO 36003KT 7SM OVC008 11/10 RMK AO2

VMC there at the time, and worst case, they have 2 RNAV (GPS) approaches. So they could have made it.

As far as Armchair QB goes, we’re asking the same questions the NTSB will be asking. We’re glad everyone made out of this one, but as already mentioned, there are a lot of questions coming out of this one that are really easy to see and ask.

BL.

15

I can’t belief they would even attemp this long of a flight. From the start of the trip fuel was a huge issue. For a 4:54hr trip flight plans show almost 5000 pound fuel burn at altitude. and the aircraft holds just over 500 pounds of fuel. The never got to high altitude so they were flying lower and burning more fuel. I would say they would have been lucky to have 500 pounds of fuel at there destination.

As far as dropping the gear gravity usually lets them drop down and lock and you blow the bottle to assure down an lock. But I assumed as soon as they started on there glider rating they just left the wheels up hoping to glide to the airport.

16

IMHO they tried over utilizing the a/c. 5:54

The 5:54 is likely incorrect because FA does not get the actual departure time reported from outside the US airspace. So it uses the scheduled departure time. Planned ETE was 3:56 which is reasonable for a 1200 mile trip.

Look at the times in the FA track log and you get 4:30 at a GS of about 300KTS.

C550 can carry 5000lbs of fuel and can burn 800 - 1000pph at FL280. They probably had 500 - 700lbs of fuel when arriving at KILM for the first approach.

17

KMYR is 45nm West of KSUT, making it roughly 60nm Southwest of KILM. Easily in the distance of that C550, and between MDJB and KILM. KSAV is also on the way. KCHS is also on the way. Yes, they’d have to be taken off the airway to make it, but it could be done. So saying that there wasn’t any place to divert is entirely not true.

My guess is the pilots were concerned about the repercussions about diverting to an airport without Customs availability.

That should not be a factor give the outcome but I will bet that made the pilots press to get into KILM.

18

Good point, which would completely rule out KSUT. KMYR is an int’l airport, but you’re paying the fees for customs there. Unless they wanted to pay the extra fees, that would rule that out. My guess is that they thought they had enough fuel to not bother diverting to KSAV, which would have worked, passed customs, got a bit more fuel, then continued on…

A lot of questions indeed…

BL.

19

KMYR is an int’l airport, but you’re paying the fees for customs there. Unless they wanted to pay the extra fees, that would rule that out. My guess is that they thought they had enough fuel to not bother diverting to KSAV, which would have worked, passed customs, got a bit more fuel, then continued on…

None of those places have Customs on standby at 2AM. They must have made some special arrangements at ILM for that time. Anywhere they would have diverted would not have had customs to greet them.

These are the Customs instructions:

IN CASE OF EMERGENCY

If an emergency landing is made in the United States, the pilot should report arrival by telephone or radio to the nearest CBP office as promptly as possible. The pilot should keep all baggage and merchandise together in a separate place and should not allow any passengers or crewmembers to leave the place of arrival or come into contact with the public without official permission from CBP to do so, unless such action is necessary to preserve life, health, or property. If a CBP officer is not present upon arrival, the same procedures, just described above, should be followed.

Since the law provides for substantial penalties for violations of Customs regulations, aircraft operators and pilots should make every effort to comply with them. Examples of the more common violations and resulting penalties include:

VIOLATION
PENALTY

Failure to report arrival [19 CFR 122.32.33]
$5,000

Failure to obtain landing rights [19 CFR 122.33]
$5,000

Failure to provide advance notice of arrival [19 CFR 122.31]
$5,000

Failure to provide report of penetration of southern border

[19 CFR 122.23(b)]
$5,000

Departing without permission or discharging passengers or cargo without permission [19 CFR 122.361]
$5,000

Failure to present required documents [19 CFR 122.27]
$5,000

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[quote=“leardvr”]

Exactly. 4 approaches in the same crappy conditions? You’ve gotta be not so smart…